Introduction
The City of Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning has received a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) Keystone Grant for partial funding to develop a Vacant Structure Stabilization Strategy for use citywide. The strategy will assist City Planning and other City departments as well as community groups in establishing a transparent evaluation system and priorities for stabilization such as historic significance, community importance, or potential for use as affordable housing. The strategy will also explore funding sources, solutions to legal issues, and possible partnerships in this work.
This strategy is intended to consist of multiple parts, including the development of a community engagement strategy, to ensure the process is equitable and transparent, and a pilot implementation stage in the Hill District.
What is vacant property stabilization?
In this project, we are referring to the structural stabilization of a building, based on a professional condition assessment in order to mitigate against a property's deterioration while vacant.
Stabilization work involves securing a building's exterior envelope. That might look like adding structural support to reinforce it, removal or prevention of infestation by pests, or the protection of the building from moisture damage by adding a new roof.
This project will not provide funding directly for physical stabilization of structures; however it will look to identify funding sources for this work.
